The cause of Gabby Petito’s death was ruled strangulation and the manner of death was homicide, Teton County Medical Examiner Dr. Brent Blue said Tuesday.
Coroner says Gabby Petito died by strangulation
He said the time of Petito’s death was estimated at three to four weeks before her body was found Sept. 19 in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The autopsy included a CT scan of the entire body, examinations by a forensic pathologist and a forensic anthropologist, and a toxicology analysis. “So pretty much all the bases were covered,” he said.
Blue declined to give further details about the autopsy or a possible suspect, saying he was limited in the information he could legally disclose.
However, he also referred to Petito’s case as “one of many deaths across the country of people involved in domestic violence.”
Blue had previously ruled the manner of her death a homicide in his preliminary findings, but the cause of death was pending autopsy results, according to the FBI.
The announcement came at a news conference about a month after Petito, 22, was reported missing following a road trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie, 23.
Petito had spent the summer traveling the western United States with Laundrie and had documented their adventures on social media. But Laundrie returned to the Florida home they shared with her parents on Sept. 1 without Petito, and her family was unable to locate her.
Her parents reported her missing on Sept. 11, and after an exhaustive search, her remains were found on Sept. 19.
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